[From Editorial] Articles in this Special Issue on health and ageing in Africa come from a broad spectrum of disciplines and the articles reflect a wide range of topics. Three contributions deal with the maintenance of good health. Remaining active is a key component of successful ageing which minimizes the loss of functional independence in the elderly. An investigation of the role of gender in the analysis of gait of older people by Macfarlane, Nicholson and Muller provides important methodological information which may be applied in practical outcomes-based assessments. The development of a reliable tool to assess gait, as a measure of lower-extremity function, is thus pertinent. There is growing evidence that good nutritional status is an important determinant of optimal cognitive and physical functioning in older people and influences both quality of life and health status. In a study of institutionalized elderly women in Cape Town, Charlton, Joosen and Jaffer report a high prevalence of suboptimal vitamin C status. The authors make out a case for low-dose micro-nutrient supplementation in residents of homes for the aged, particularly in homes where a cook-chill catering system is operated. They suggest that ongoing nutritional assessment should be an integral part of the care of older residents. In keeping with the topic of nutrition, Walker, a prolific author on public health issues in Africa over the past 50 years, has contributed a guest column in which he addresses the nutrition-ageing paradigm from an epidemiological viewpoint. He highlights opportunities for high-quality research on the association between life-style factors and healthy ageing in the continent. Moving on to a specific form of health-care delivery, Makoni examines language practices in the care that is rendered to older residents of a Cape Town nursing home. He describes barriers in communication between nursing staff and residents from different ethnic backgrounds, which compromise the quality of care that is rendered and which may result in conflict and tension between staff and residents. In her article, Tlou evaluates a community-based programme in which older women who live in rural areas of Botswana are trained to educate members of their communities in the prevention of the spread of the HIV I AIDS virus. The findings demonstrate the benefits of targeting lay persons for health education activities in rural Africa and the utilization of older persons, in this case women, as a valuable resource. The special issue also includes two opinion pieces and an item which opens debate. In separate contributions, Wilson and Duodu examine challenges facing effective health-care service delivery systems for older persons in African countries and express their opinions in this regard. Wilson's suggestions for multidisciplinary specialist teams, including incontinence teams, nutrition teams and vision teams, and for the development of training for lay people to become generic " rehabilitation assistants," are examples of appropriate community-based African solutions to health service delivery needs of the older population. Duodo makes similar suggestions to those of Wilson, specifically regarding geriatric care service delivery in Ghana. He also highlights the common practice of traditional self-medication in rural-dwelling older Ghanaians. Readers are invited to comment on, and indeed to augment, the authors' opinions in Letters to the Editor. To date, very little work has been done in South Africa on biological aspects of ageing. In a short contribution on the free radical theory of ageing, Van Rensburg and Potocnik open debate on this topic. Once again, readers are invited to contribute to debate in this area in letters to the editor, for publication in the following number of the journal.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:rhodes/vital:8077 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Ferreira, Monica (editor), Moller, Valerie, HSRC/UCT Centre for Gerontology |
| Publisher | HSRC/UCT Centre for Gerontology, University of Cape Town |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 40 pages, pdf |
| Rights | Ferreira, Monica (editor), Moller, Valerie (editor) |
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